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China on Thursday blowing off a news report that Chinese spies have been eavesdropping on calls made by President Trump using his personal unsecured iPhone. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman making light of those claims saying quote, if they're really very worried about Apple phones being bugged, then they can change to using Huawei or just sever ties completely with the outside world.

00:00:29

Huawei technologies has come under scrutiny in the US, with intelligence officials concerned that Chinese telecom gear makers maybe beholden to the ruling communist party raising the risk of espionage. The US department of defense has also stopped selling cellphones and modems made by Huawei in ZTE in stores on its military bases citing potential security risks.

00:00:55

China's barbed response comes after a New York Times report Wednesday that Chinese and Russians spies often secretly listened in on Trump when he used his unsecure iPhone to gossip with old friends, despite repeated warnings from his aides. According to the newspaper, Beijing is trying to use what it learned to prevent the current trade war between the two countries from escalating further.

00:01:19

In a news conference Thursday, China also claiming such reports were quote evidence that The New York Times makes fake news. Something Trump agrees with in his latest tweet, saying quote I only use government phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is so wrong.